The Non-partisan Politics, Amy Bishop Anderson Thread...

[TIDE-HSV]

On the first question, yes, she's charged with "capital" murder. Shorthanding the legal jargon, multiple murders like this qualify. I believe that electrocution is still available at the option of the murderer. Hard to imagine anyone choosing it, given its history. It, like the guillotine, was conceived as a humane alternative to hanging, the ax or the firing squad.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I've always found it interesting these high profile murderers are reported with first and middle names - Lee Harvey Oswald, etc
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Hers doesn't fit that pattern. She uses the "Anderson" only to indicate her marriage status. She was known generally as "Amy Bishop..."

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Well, yet another inconsistency. Yesterday, on camera, the husband insisted more than once that he had no idea where she got the gun. Now, another interviewer says that he said that he was aware that she had borrowed a gun from a friend. Maybe he did have enough gumption to ask "Honey, where'd you get the gun?"

 

[Bodhisattva]

How'd her husband survive this long with her? I'd be afraid go to sleep after an argument. I might wake up dead.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

How'd her husband survive this long with her? I'd be afraid go to sleep after an argument. I might wake up dead.

I think he supported and cooperated. If she built those bombs back in '93, is there any possibility he couldn't know. Or help?

 

[Crimson Speed]

How'd her husband survive this long with her? I'd be afraid go to sleep after an argument. I might wake up dead.

I was thinking the same thing. Guess he must have slept with one eye open.

 

[92tide]

How'd her husband survive this long with her? I'd be afraid go to sleep after an argument. I might wake up dead.

maybe he knew the right safety word

 

[RammerJammer14]

Heard on the radio earlier that crazy lady is now claiming that she doesn't even remember the shootings. Maybe she really is trying to play the insanity card...

BTW, what kind of married woman goes around still using her maiden name for all purposes? Besides hollywood actresses, of course, and I am pretty sure they do it for expediency when the divorce rolls around in 4 months.

 

[Bama Reb]

Heard on the radio earlier that crazy lady is now claiming that she doesn't even remember the shootings. Maybe she really is trying to play the insanity card...

BTW, what kind of married woman goes around still using her maiden name for all purposes? Besides hollywood actresses, of course, and I am pretty sure they do it for expediency when the divorce rolls around in 4 months.

And she might just get away with it. There have already been people at UAH who say they thought she was crazy.
If she receives a frontal lobotomy and spends the rest of her days in a padded cell, to me that's just as good as spending them in a jail cell awaiting execution. :cool2:

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I've already state earlier in the thread that her chances of getting the insanity acquittal are very, very small. Forget what you've seen in lawyer TV - there hasn't been a successful insanity defense in a murder trial in Madison County in many years. That includes people who exhibited a lot crazier behavior than Dr. Bishop. It can't be ruled out completely, but I'd put her chances at less than 1%. If she should get acquitted on insanity or mental defect, then she is remanded to the custody of the state dept of mental health, to be held until she's no longer insane or until, if still insane, she's no longer a danger to herself or others. This takes the authority notifying the court and a hearing being held before release. Sections 15-16-60 et seq. Code of Alabama (1975). As a practical matter, how could she ever be so certified, since she's taken at least four lives at this point. IOW, it would be a life sentence. In her calculations and planning for this crime, she should have researched more carefully how often the insanity plea succeeds here and what would happen to her after acquittal.

 

[RammerJammer14]

Oh I agree, I don't think she has a chance in heck to be ruled insane. Just found it interesting that she now claims to have no memory of the shootings (yeah, sure, we believe you), and I think that it looks like she is actually going to try the insanity route. I hope she gets the capital treatment.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Oh I agree, I don't think she has a chance in heck to be ruled insane. Just found it interesting that she now claims to have no memory of the shootings (yeah, sure, we believe you), and I think that it looks like she is actually going to try the insanity route. I hope she gets the capital treatment.

Makes you wonder when the amnesia is supposed to have set in. As she was being put into the squad car, she said "It didn't happen," clearly indicating that she remembered "it." As a practical matter, the very few successful insanity defenses which work almost all involve individuals with a long history of aberrant acts. (Shooting your brother "accidentally" wouldn't count.) Think about someone wandering the streets, talking to himself, jobless and homeless. That's your best chance for success. The more successful you've been, holding down a job, academic success, etc., all work against the defendant. "Compartmental" insanity is just about universally rejected. There is no verdict of "temporary" insanity. The jury can't even deliver such a verdict. As soon as the not guilty by reason of insanity or mental defect is delivered, away you go to Mental Health. The code sections I recited above implicitly recognize a "recovery" of sanity. However, the conditions for release are such that Bishop would never be released. Who on earth would want to take the responsibility for releasing her?